It is recognized that transmission of microbiological pathogens from the hands to other parts of the body or to food stuffs is a frequent means of communicating diseases. Some potential pathogen are E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Listeria, and Staph. aureus. These pathogens in contaminated food stuffs are responsible for severe illnesses and even deaths. Recent episodes involving fatalities due to contamination of food products during food handling have increased the publics' awareness of the serious potential of improper food handling. This is of special concern in fast food outlets. Although proper hand washing hygiene is generally stressed, the reality is poor compliance by the food preparers and handlers. Even when food preparers and handlers do comply with directives such as "Wash Hands before leaving Rest room", the washing practice is typically inadequate to provide sufficient sanitization of the hands. Consequently, transmission of rest room pathogens to foodstuffs is common.
Rest room contamination is not the only source. Simply shifting from raw food handling to finished food handling is a common source of contamination, for example, the common contamination of chicken with Salmonella. Furthermore, food handlers often handle money, clean tables, or mop floors, any of which can contaminate the hands and lead to transmission of disease pathogens. A trip to the rest room to wash hands between the various activities is uncommon because of the time and inconvenience involved. All to often, food handlers and preparers are not committed to proper hygiene and it is difficult for managers to enforce compliance. As pointed out previously, even washing hands does not insure sanitation if the washing practice is inadequate. Even with adequate washing, almost everyone has experience the dilemma of turning off the faucet, actuating the towel dispenser, and even opening the rest room door which provides sufficient means to recontaminate the hands. It would be a major improvement if the means for hand sanitization would be simpler and more convenient, preferably nearer the workstations. It would further be major improvement if the degree and reliability of sanitization be independent of the hand manipulation of the individual.
Some attempts have been made to remedy the problem. For example, hand sanitizing stations using germicidal gels or foams are employed. These still depend upon user hand manipulation to distribute the product. Such manipulation takes time, proper procedure and most importantly, commitment of the user. Some hand sanitizing stations require manual actuation to dispense the germicidal product. Manual contact can lead to contamination of the very implement meant to combat the problem. Foaming and gelling of the germicidal product provides a means to bulk up the product so manual distribution of the germicidal product about the hands is more likely. Unfortunately, quantities of the germicidal product beyond that required to provide sanitization are needed just to enable distribution of the product about the hands. The excess product is messy to use and requires extended evaporation time on the hands. Further, excess product may lead to other dermatological problems such as drying and cracking of the skin or even destruction of the natural micro biological flora of the hands.
European patent application publication number 0567678A1 to Mongkol on Nov. 3, 1993, discloses a fluid dispensing device for disinfecting of the hands which uses a infrared detector to activate a pressurized spray bottle when the user's hand is placed beneath a spray valve. The intent is to "spray fluids and readily irrigate in a fully automated manner the entire surfaces of the hands". However, the simple spray from a spray bottle has no affinity for the hands and thus still requires the user to move the hands beneath the spray to achieve overall coating. Furthermore, much of the active germicidal fluid is wasted as overspray, familiar to anyone who has used a paint spray can. Further still, the overspray of the germicidal fluid contaminates the air about the device and poses an inhalation problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,067 issued to Jeffiies et al. on Mar. 8, 1994 discloses an apparatus for electrostatic spraying. The apparatus disclosed by Jeffries et al. is a hand held device particularly concerned with the spraying of relatively low resistivity liquids such as aqueous and alcohol based liquids used in personal care products such as deodorants, anti-perspirants, scents and hair sprays. Also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,067 is a handgrip portion or trigger provided with a contact exposed for engagement with the hand so as to provide a path to ground in use. Since the emitted electrostatic spray carries a charge to the target skin surface, a build up of charge on the user results. Without the path to ground, the electrostatic charge of the user will accumulate usually resulting in an unpleasant static discharge.